Nine-Year-Old Boy Dies In Fall From Escalator At Kings Plaza

A nine-year-old Crown Heights boy who had been shopping with his parents at Kings Plaza Saturday, died after plunging three stories from an escalator in the Sears store there, police said.

Malcolm Lawrence, who had a developmental disorder, wandered away from his parents at around 11 a.m. and apparently tumbled from the third floor escalator to the concrete ground below. Although apparently no witnesses saw how he was able to climb over the rail, a number of people saw the youngster hit the floor and ran to help him. He was taken by Emergency Medical Service paramedics to Coney Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to published reports.

The boy’s father, Bryan, tearfully told television interviewers that he and his wife, Hughette, and their son had gone to the mall, located in Marine Park, to return a television set and Malcolm had run off to play video games. He said he heard screams, followed the voices to the escalator and saw his son lying three floors down.

He said Malcolm was an only child and that the family had gone to the mall "hundreds of times before" without any incidents.

Police are continuing to conduct an investigation into exactly how the boy was able to climb over the four-foot escalator railing. Charles Rogers